Hearts ✓

Ten 💕

Is this real, fake, or somewhere in between.

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Congratulations Jake, you've officially secured phase one, you've got it under your bag, and you know it. Although I don't think he's anywhere really that close to the transition period to phase two, we're definitely friends, or so I thought.

I haven't seen Jake since the beach, ultimately we called it a day once the sun started burning both of us. Although he offered to drive me home, I told him that I would walk, and I did. With a little treat of ice cream. When I did get home, however. I found the same swimsuit he gave me to wear on the beach folded neatly inside the brown paper bag.

I had told him that I wouldn't accept such an expensive gift, and so he made the point to drop it off. He was kind, I'd have to give him that.

It was currently Sunday, and I was currently redrafting my speech for the assembly on Tuesday when Ally and Elliot decided to disturb my utterly peaceful, and distraction-free day.

At first, I refused to come with them on a Girls Day Out, but when they suggested I'd get my daily dose of caffeine, I was all in for it. Normally I wouldn't be, but today, my mother and father had hogged the machine at home to the point that they were arguing who got to bring it to work.

I really didn't know what to expect. If this was a trip Ally had planned, then we'd end up in three trillion boutiques, if this was something Elliot had planned, it would be either to the food court, a movie, or the library, so when we ended up at a spa, I could tell which of them planned this.

My phone was buzzing, and seeing that it was Lauren, I quickly answered it.

"Hello?" I say. "Any updates."

"Actually, yeah." She replies on the other end. "Apparently, no one else had this heart to heart confession talk. Boys don't like to be seen as weak, not this early, at least."

"Oh. I wasn't expecting that."

"Yeah, boys start the soppy soap operas later on." I could feel her smiling from the other end of the phone. "Did anything happen recently?"

"Yup. He took me to the beach yesterday, which is totally normal, but then he literally gave me a really expensive swimsuit as a gift." I state.

Call me crazy, call me desperate, but I just needed to know who was messing with my brain. When you feel like someone's goal is to trick you, and you sort of warm up to them, you'd kind of want to know when they were being 'legit' and when they weren't.

"Jake seems quite intriguing. I don't know if it's a new method or something, but giving girls expensive gifts is pointless if he's just going to break your heart."

"Hmm, you do have a point," I said. "I checked the price online, it's around 300 dollars, but that's rounding it off downwards."

"Wow, that's expensive, especially for a swimsuit." She says. "Maybe Aubrey will know something about this."

Aubrey was the kindest cheerleader in existence. She wasn't very kind, but kinder than most people on the squad. Especially in this type of school, the girls really have to band together, passing on information and tricks, because it's really all about survival against the boys.

"Anyways." She says. "I've got to go. Jake, Jake is interesting, good luck with that."

"Thanks." I breathe. "I think I'll need it."

Stress-Free Massage, says the card placed above the plush white robes stacked up for us to pick up and wear. I said otherwise, from yesterday, I figured out that my mind could not leave the topic of, you know what.

"So." Ally chats excitedly.

"Stop being so excited, it's disturbing my inner hermit."

"Okay. Okay, spill the gossip."

Two hours pass by and while we get our massages done, I'm catching the girls up on everything that's happened recently. Because I've mostly been consulting Lauren for help, I haven't really spoken much to either of them about it.

The girls look relatively eager because, for some reason, it's somehow interesting to listen to a story a million times where the protagonist and the antagonist go through the same things, but with every bet, the names of the protagonist and the antagonist change as well.

Soon the Macchiato's are emptied, and the massage is finished, and the day comes to an end. I wish my friends a goodnight and head into a takeout restaurant, where I am greeted by smoking hot dishes that are absolutely delicious.

There really isn't much to say, but when I look out of the balcony at nine in the night, because I simply felt like it, I see someone in a black hoodie waving at me. I can see his face though, and I know it's Jake.

He's just well-waving at me. I call to him a good night, and he does the same, he asks me how the swimsuit is doing, and I laugh as I reply how it impressively hadn't broken. He laughs.

He leaves, and I don't really know what to think or say.

Is this real, fake, or somewhere in between.